Highly automated apparatus for processing bulk mail in a continuous procedure are known, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,037, issued to the assignee of the present invention. Such an apparatus typically includes an operative combination of processing stations, such as an input station for receiving the incoming mail in bulk and for separating the envelopes for individual delivery to the remainder of the apparatus; a detection station for detecting irregularities in the contents of the envelopes, such as the detection of metal items (staples, paper clips), folded contents, etc.; a station for out-sorting envelopes rejected at the detection station; a station for opening the envelopes along multiple edges; and a station for extracting the contents from the opened envelopes, for subsequent processing of the extracted contents.
A typical apparatus 1 for such automated processing of bulk mail is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is an isometric view of the apparatus and FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the apparatus, showing the relationship among the various stations of the apparatus. As shown, bulk mail may be taken directly from mail trays 2 in an off-load position 3, and placed on an input conveyor 4 which delivers the received envelopes into the processing unit 5.
FIG. 2 shows, by dotted lines, the path of the envelopes (and later the extracted documents) through the various stations of the processing unit 5. The stacks of envelopes 25 in conveyor 4 are delivered edgewise from the stack and passed through a scanning station 26. Scanning station 26 primarily operates to identify envelopes which may include staples or paper clips, or envelopes not of the desired dimension. Rejected envelopes are removed from the stream at sorting station 27 and collected in reject trays 6,7. Accepted envelopes are passed through an edge-severing station 28 which operates to sever edges of the envelopes, preferably plural edges, to ready the envelopes for the extraction of contents. An extraction station 29 is provided to receive the edge-severed envelopes and to separate the faces of each envelope, releasing the contents located between them. After the contents are removed, the envelope faces are discarded, and the contents pass from the extraction station 29. If the extraction procedure was unsuccessful for a given envelope, the envelope faces and contents are re-united, and diverted from the processing path for special attention at out-sort tray 18.
Extracted contents, after passing through turnabout station 30 (which serves to allow a more compact configuration of the apparatus), are passed through a justification station 32 which aligns the documents for presentation to a detection station 33 capable of determining the orientation of certain documents (e.g., checks), and then through a reversal station 34 and a twisting station 35 for aligning documents according to signals received from the detection station 33. Further detail regarding the functions of the aforementioned stations is provided in the above-identified U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,037, which is fully incorporated herein by reference. At the end of the process, the separated documents are collected in stacking units 12. If desired, different types of documents (e.g., checks and invoices) can be stacked separately in different bins of the stacking unit 12.
The most common type of envelope to be opened by such an apparatus will include a check and an invoice, such as would be sent to utilities or credit-card companies. Often, the check is sent together with a pre-printed invoice which is placed by the customer in a standardized window-type envelope. The customer (paying a bill) must orient the invoice relative to the window of the envelope, so that the return address printed on the invoice appears as the mailing address in the window of the envelope. This not only saves the cost of printing envelopes, but ensures that the invoices are all oriented in the same way relative to the envelopes. It is for this reason that the apparatus disclosed in the aforementioned patent need only operate to orient the accompanying check, to effectively orient all extracted documents for stacking.
However, it has recently become desirable to extend such operations to so-called "windowless" envelopes, where the invoice (and check) may now be randomly oriented relative to the envelope since the expedient of a window for orientation purposes is no longer available. In such case, after the invoices are removed, each invoice can be oriented relative to the apparatus in one of four positions; with the relevant (information bearing) side of the invoice facing front or to the rear, and upright or inverted. The combination of these two factors creates four possible orientations for an invoice passing through the apparatus.
In an automated, high-speed bulk mail processing system, the orientation of a document is often of crucial importance. Very often the extracted documents are to be scanned for various information-gathering purposes (e.g., machine code is read, numerical amounts are entered for data processing, to verify proper signatures, etc.). In order to carry out such operations, it is essential that all of the documents are uniformly oriented, generally with their top edges facing up and with their front sides facing forward. For "windowless" envelopes, this was previously not possible, even with the apparatus previously described.